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Saturday, December 31, 2011

I've been so blog absent this week, and I miss everyone! I started my job on Tuesday (yay!) and have been lacking any motivation to get crafty (boo!). Since I haven't made anything new, and it's the last day of twenty eleven, this is the perfect day to share my favorite 10 projects of the year!

Number 10:

I made this 'celebrate' card for my bloggy friend Kristen, for the birth of her baby girl in the middle of a horrible Northeast snowstorm! Click here for the original post.

#10

Number 9:

This cute little red and teal owl holiday card was sent for the recent Card Crafting Mamas card swap (on etsy), and he traveled to Ruby over in England. Click here for original post.

#9

Number 8:

I made so many Halloween cards this year, they are definitely fun to create. Tons of friends and family got cards, so I don't remember where this particular one went. Maybe to my mom and dad? Oh well. Click here to see all the others!

#8

Number 7:

This is a chipboard album that I created for my dear friend, Michelle. It was completely put together by me, and I had so much fun making it! For more pictures, click here for the original post.

#7

Number 6:

I love how fun this happy peacock card is! I made it for the lovely Virginia for her big 50th birthday! Click here for more details on the original post.

#6

Number 5:

Side Step Cards! I don't think there is any card that I love more than side step cards. They are just way too much to create. I made these after our anniversary trip to Maine. They got sent to our parents. Click here for original post.

#5

Number 4:

Now these little lizard cards didn't get much attention. Actually, they got very little attention at all. I love them, a lot. The colors are so fun, and they are just so cute! These haven't been sent out in the mail yet, I can't part with them. Click here for the original post.

#4

Number 3:

This little Halloween wreath made quite the buzz around my blog. It was nice to have my project so well received! It's wrapped up in the basement now, waiting for next year. Click here for original post.

#3

Number 2:

My aqua kitchen makeover was the beginning of a year long color obsession. I painted my chairs, made a piece of artwork, made another state pride paper artwork, and filled the room with teal towels. Click here for original post.

#2

Number 1:

A holiday card that I created recently ended up being one of my favorites of the year. It was sent to the darling Rosemary for the Hero Arts holiday card swap. Click here for original post.

#1

Have a happy and safe ring into the New Year! Don't make too many resolutions, or you'll just feel bad about yourself when you break them a week later. Happy 2012 :)

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Every month my super favorite paper company holds a scrapbook sketch layout challenge. I think I am just barely squeaking this in before the deadline! I love my DCWV scrap-a-holic template challenges! :)

december layout sketch

I made two layouts, one is a pretty exact interpretation and the other one I switched up the circle placement a bit. Every single paper used is from the DCWV Marketstreet stack (have I mentioned this is a new fave?)

I loved these papers, they definitely had a scrapbooker in mind when designing them! The papers already framed themselves, just like the frame in the sketch. By the way, these photos are from our anniversary vacation to Maine. I know, I am finally starting to feel caught up in my scrapping! If you wanna see way more photos from the trip, visit this old post.

I almost forgot, I promised you guys I would share my exciting phone call I got yesterday! Well, remember a looong time ago when I asked you to keep your fingers crossed because I had a job interview? Well I finally heard back and I got the job! I am finnnnnally employed! Such a great feeling after about 7 months of applications and rejections.

Merry Christmas Eve. I hope everybody (who celebrates) is enjoying a lot of time with family and enjoying great holiday traditions :)

Friday, December 23, 2011

BUT FIRST. Lettering Delights is having their FANTASTIC dollar days sale right now! If you've ever wanted to try out some graphics, new fonts, alphabets, printables or SVGs now is definitely the time! All graphic sets are only ONE DOLLAR $1 and SVG sets are 50% off. It's time to stock up! Click here to visit the sale, or click the photo below

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!!! I just got a very exciting phone call this morning! I will share on tomorrow's post, but I think it's going to be the best gift of the year :)

The challenge at the CAS-ual Fridays blog this week is to use kraft paper and twine. You can play along with challenge #33 by going here

i think this photo is blurry? dammit

I participated in a holiday card swap with the Hero Arts flickr group, and the lovely Linda sent me a gorgeous card and some extra goodies for me to play with. She sent a cut of this Hero Arts poinsettia stamp and the vine die cuts. I colored in my flower using pink, red, and yellow watercolor pencils. I outlined the petals with a red gel pen, and added little pearls and Stickles to the center. Quick and easy :)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

I never jumped on the whole chevron stripes trendy bandwagon. I never made anything even close to those stripes. I'm a little late for my first go at it, I admit (but I'm ok with it) so the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World was a good time to try...

tuesday trigger

These aren't technically "chevron" but it's super trendy so it might as well be. I made a simple one layered card inspired by the stripes and funky colors.

I used tape to mark off the stripes on each fold. I used distress inks (mustard seed, broken glass, worn lipstick) to blend the colors. The stamps are from Hero Arts "mi casa" CL389, with the sentiment embossed in teal.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Ok, more like How-To Wednesday, I'm a little late. But I really wanted to share some SVG tips to make them a little less daunting! ALL cuts shown are from my favorite holiday set Lettering Delight's "Peppermint Holiday" set, I use Make the Cut software, and my beloved Silhouette SD.

I was working on a lot of Christmas cards over the weekend, and I always want to use great SVG files but it always seems like such a hassle to deal with them. I mean, I'll spend a solid hour just going through all my paper stacks and finding the perfect color for each little piece. Then a huge 'duh' lightbulb went off... Just cut everything on good white cardstock and color the pieces later! Duh.TIP 1:

everything on one sheet!

So with just one sheet of pretty white paper, I could make all of the cuts for 4 Christmas trees and two awesome reindeer. This is so much quicker than cutting a separate piece for green paper, piece for brown paper, piece for purple etc etc etc.
Then I would color the pieces however I wanted; I used mostly inks, but if you have Copics this would also be a great way to use them.

This also gives me more freedom if (when) I change my mind about colors. So for these birdies I decided later that I wanted some blue ones, no problem! Just color em :)

TIP 2: When opening a svg file in your software (I use Make the Cut) don't be afraid to delete all the unnecessary layers. For example, the birdie above originally has 5 layers to be cut. By deleting things like an extra shadow layer, and an extra layer just for a little eye, I made him 3 layers. I am able to draw a black dot as an eye, and also save my sanity by not having to cut or glue a teeny black dot.

Delete stupid layers

TIP 3: Add your own accents, don't cut them! Another example... see the two little red dots on the mat? Those are holly berries. I don't need to cut two small circles for berries. Why? I have Stickles! Just add accents like Stickles, Pearl dimensions, bling, gel pens, ribbons, whatever. Then you can get rid of more cluttered cuts and also make it your own. The Christmas tree cut I showed in photo 1 had about 10 'ornaments' to cut for each tree, they were really just circles. I eliminated all of those and drew in my own with shimmery gel pens and Stickles.

The end results:

I took this awesome reindeer from 7 (seven!) layers down to 2! By coloring everything myself and adding glitter accents, you can't even tell it's only two layers. By the way this ended up being my favorite Christmas card I've made all year :)

So I hope these tips help! They may seem like 'oh duh' ideas to you, but I am so glad to have finally figured it out. I don't hesitate to use my Silhouette SD anymore, it's so easy with just a white piece of paper!!

I just fell in love with this little birdy! I cut the image four times, all on plain white cardstock. I individually colored each piece with various inks (colorbox chalk inks, martha stewart inks, distress inks).

I’ve got more card sets to make, hopefully they can hit the mailbox before tomorrow is over :)

I was inspired by the bold geometric pattern and the green and yellowish colors. I used a Stampin Up! punch that Donna gave me and paper punched the green and yellow papers. I made a single score line under the squares and stamped 'merriest wishes'. I also adhered some of the punched paper to the inside of the coordinating envelope.

For this holiday/winter themed card I was inspired by the houndstooth pattern and the light blue color. I layered alternating houndstooth and glittered blue papers. I stamped and colored the house with colored pencils, added light blue stickles to make the roof look snowy, and adhered the stamped sentiment.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

I don't know what the hell this is, but I looked up "beer song" on youtube and this is the only video I watched, because I couldn't stop laughing. It's lego people singing their own song about how beer is the best drink in the world...

Why? I'm sharing a card I made for my brother's birthday (it's this Saturday, Happy Birthday, Bro!) and he has been obsessed over legos since before I was born. He still gets legos for gifts. So this was perfect. My card is also for the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge, and the photo inspiration is this...

So with that, I created this...

The reindeer are getting completely drunk for my brother's birthday. The one on his back could be doing a beer bong or something similarly dumb, while the other pours the beer in his mouth. What else are friends for?

I stamped, colored with pencils, and cut these Lawn Fawn "Cozy Christmas" stockings in the hue of my favorite colorcombo obsession, and created a little banner with the sentiment. I distressed the white tag with 'broken glass' ink, then used my Mini Mister to spray water on it. It wasn't splotchy enough for me, so I used my new Smooch Spritz "sea kiss" to mist more color. (I saw Donna using this product and I just had to get some of my own!)

For the Christmas tree tag, I textured embossed with Snowflakes and lightly distressed with 'broken glass' ink, I also sprayed Smooch Spirtz 'sea kiss'. I stamped, colored with pencils, and cut the tree from Lawn Fawn's "Critters in the Forest" and the sentiment and lights are from "Cozy Christmas". I added some icicle stickles to the top of the tree and randomly on the snowflakes. The lights also have Glossy Accents on them for dimension.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Missed you all and I know I have a lot of blogs to visit! My best friend from Phoenix visited me over the weekend! It was so nice to have her here, I wish she didn't have to leave!

I have two tags for the 12 Tags of Christmas today. I'll do my best to catch up (but I will not do day 6 because I just didn't like it, and I doubt I'll get around to day 7... oh well)

tim holtz's tag day 8

my tag day 8

Have you ever seen a more 'steampunk' filled gift tag than Tim Holtz's?? It was a little much for me. I played around with the ideas of photos, tags, clocks but not nearly as extreme. I don't need three old Twilight Zone men on my Christmas tag, k thanks ;)

Deets:

1- With My Mind's Eye "sassy logo" stamps, stamp flourish border and medallion and emboss with white powder. Distress tag with various colors (Mustard Seed, Tumbled Glass, Worn Lipstick) and blend.
2- Clocks were cut out from an old DCWV stack called "At Home" and photos, precious moments sign, and simple tag are all from DCWV "Mainstreet" stack (I think it's a new favorite of mine!)
3- I added black glitter stickers to spell 'joy', a green bow, and some red stickles. Simple :)

tim holtz's tag day 9

my tag day 9

I loved the double embossing technique used, so I wanted to make that pretty bold. I love the cool colors on this one!

Deets:

1- Stamp large flourish from My Mind's Eye "sassy logo" stamps, heat emboss with teal powder.
2- Distress whole tag with 'worn lipstick' ink, cover with clear powder and emboss. Then I distressed the whole tag again with 'tea dye' ink to sink into the cracks.
3- I cut the candlestick using Halloween Lighting set from Lettering Delights, and the 'peace' letters and various holly leaves with free Make the Cut files and my Silhouette SD.
4- Color the candle, letters, and holly with inks, add ribbon and stickles

I've actually been using these tags on my Christmas gifts, and it's fun to see them under the tree. We have three gifts by our little tree, so cute :)

Search RWKrafts

I would go crazy without my crafts, whatever they are. I love making cards and trying new techniques! I live in the lovely state of Maryland with my hubby, papillon, pomeranian and guinea pigs. Here's my story and my crafts and my photos. Thanks for stopping by :)
Please contact me:
rwkrafts{at}gmail{dot}com